Monrovia – Legal Court docket “A” Decide Roosevelt Willie is but to approve the prison look bond submitted on behalf of Tom Edridge and several other co-defendants accused of setting fireplace to the Capitol Constructing.
FrontPageAfrica has discovered that though the bond has been submitted to the courtroom on greater than two events, Decide Willie has neither signed nor supplied a proper clarification for the delay.
It may be recalled that Edridge and the others had been arrested, detained, and forwarded to courtroom following their alleged involvement within the arson incident. Initially held on the Monrovia Central Jail, the defendants had been later transferred to the Kakata Central Jail. Their arrest coincided with a police investigation involving then-Speaker J. Fonati Koffa and Representatives Abu Kamara, Jacob Debee, and Dixon Seboe.
On Tuesday, the protection group filed a consolidated prison look bond on behalf of all of the accused, in accordance with Liberian regulation. Nevertheless, Decide Willie isn’t but to approve it, successfully prolonging the detention of the defendants—regardless of what authorized consultants describe because the presentation of ample surety.
Article 21(i) of the 1986 Structure of Liberia states: “All accused individuals shall be bailable upon ample safety…”
The decide’s inaction has triggered constitutional issues, with authorized analysts and human rights advocates questioning whether or not the delay stems from judicial discretion or constitutes a denial of due course of and the elemental proper to bail.
There are rising requires the Judiciary to behave to stop what some describe because the arbitrary withholding of rights. Critics warn that any such delay undermines the rule of regulation and threatens the constitutional ensures afforded to all accused individuals, whatever the allegations they face.
